It turns out that there is still time to do something about the Russian gas price increase. At least vice-speaker of the National Assembly Vahan Hovhannisyan has not lost all hope. During the Armenian-Russian parliamentary sessions, the Armenian MPs made some offensive remarks to their Russian colleagues and the Russians got the picture. Vahan Hovhannisyan added that the gas price increase may hurt Armenian-Russian relations. In fact, Mr. Hovhannisyan clearly sees the changes in relations between both countries. He especially doesn’t like the “property in exchange for debt” transaction, although there was a time when the authorities considered that as positive.
Here’s what’s going on during this whole Armenian-Russian “gas tension”: Armenian authorities are “moaning and groaning” to their Russian colleagues, reminding them about history and the current strategic ties; then they persuade them not to get jealous if Armenia chooses from other alternative power-generators (what’s interesting is that only lovers get jealous of each other, but recently Armenia and Russia recall anything but the love). It’s also interesting that the pro-authority and oppositionist political parties are also doing this. For example, Manuk Gasparyan even sent a letter to President of Russia Vladimir Putin stating that the gas price increase has turned into a political issue (after all, the gas price didn’t change for Belarus). The reality of it is, of course, different. In reality, the political “component” doesn’t fit in the gas price increase context; on the contrary, the gas price increase for Belarus actually has to do with politics. That’s why the price in Belarus doesn’t go up. In other words, almost all the political figures of Armenia are doing everything they can to tie Russian economic ties with politics because that is the only way that Russia will sell gas to Armenia less than the market price (110 dollars).
Will Armenia really benefit if Russia actually changes its attitude towards Armenia and is Armenia doing the right thing by leading up to that? At first sight, it seems as though there is one and only one answer to this because, after all, the first victims of the gas price increase are going to be the average citizens. Besides that, the increase will have a great impact on Armenian economy, but…
Armenia not only has economic, but also foreign political interests. For example, the Karabagh conflict, Armenian-Turkish relations, integration into European structures, Georgian-Armenian relations, etc. Any independent country differs from an autonomous country with its foreign political interests. If Armenia goes ahead and demands that Russia sell the gas for less based on “political interests”, this means that Armenia has to forget about its national interests and take on the role of a “fore post”. This may sound a little rude, but as of today the entire political field of Armenia (including the ARF, Manuk Gasparyan and the rest) are ready to give up Armenia’s political interests and “sell them in cash”, including the Karabagh conflict, Armenian-Turkish relations, etc. Why you ask? It’s because paying for gas at the same price as, let’s say Krasnodar, means to make Russia obey Armenia just like Krasnodar does. Ukraine, on the other hand, imports gas for the international market price and it has the right to decide whether to integrate into Russia or NATO. But Belarus doesn’t have that right. Russia has taken that right from them beforehand (provision of cheap gas).
Basically, any Armenian political party demanding that Russia pay “special attention” to Armenia is simply selling Armenia’s independence. In fact, the social/economic status doesn’t justify anything. Many people have faced many hardships to declare for their independence. What kind of approach is that? Even if Azerbaijan promises to give free oil to Armenia for a century in exchange for Karabagh, is Armenia going to agree?
The gas price increase isn’t that big of a deal. All we have to do is fight against the major financial losses and profits, corruption and, of course, stop being considered a “fore post”. This means that we have to charge Russia to pay a sum of money for allocating its military forces, in fact, we should even set a “market price”. Perhaps then Manuk Gasparyan will not be the one writing a letter to Putin, but rather the Russian State Duma will write a letter to Kocharyan asking him to recall the centuries-old ties between Armenia and Russia.